Rebecca Wishnia is a San Francisco-based violinist and writer. She is a regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Classical Voice and also writes commissioned essays for concerts and recordings. She is the 2025 recipient of the William Littler Prize for Music Criticism. As a performer she appears this season with ensembles across California and beyond, including Berkeley Symphony, California Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, Sacramento Philharmonic, Santa Cruz Symphony, Opera San José, and Pocket Opera, among others. Raised by two cellists, Ms. Wishnia is a proud second-generation member of the Bay Area “Freeway Philharmonic.” 

Ms. Wishnia previously worked for nearly a decade as a music educator, including at the Crowden Music Center, as part of the San Francisco Symphony’s Adventures in Music program, and as the high strings instructor at College of Las Positas. Her teaching was the subject of a short documentary produced in 2017 by SFGovTv. Her pedagogical products, including a series of simplified piano accompaniments for the standard violin repertoire, are used by students and teachers around the world.